Socialism Crumbles In Venezuela, But Democrats Think It’s a Great Idea

Socialism must be the number one folly in the history of the human race. People keep trying it, and it keeps collapsing ignominiously. Yet leftists never give up. It is as though a guy stood in his yard throwing a ball into the air over and over, hoping that next time it won’t come back down.

In Venezuela, socialism is in its inevitable death spiral. Food shortages are causing Venezuelans to attack grocery stores:

Venezuelan supermarkets are increasingly being targeted by looters as swollen lines and prolonged food shortages spark frustration in the OPEC nation struggling with an economic crisis.

Shoppers routinely spend hours in lines to buy consumer staples ranging from corn flour to laundry soap, turning lines into venues for shoving matches and now more frequent attempts to plunder shops.

The universal end point of socialism.

The economic crisis has hit President Nicolas Maduro’s approval ratings…

I should hope so!

On Sunday, a small crowd in the western city of San Cristobal pushed its way into the government-run Bicentenario supermarket to grab products after it had closed, leaving staff scratched and bruised, according to store manager Edward Perez.

“As we were closing, a group of 20 people unexpectedly started shouting insults at the government and the workers,” said Perez in a telephone interview.

They’re insulting the right people.

Several looters were arrested after the fracas, which Perez blamed on “ultra-right-wing sectors of the opposition” seeking to sow violence.

“Ultra right-wing opposition” = reality.

More frequent than these serious events are minor melees that ensue when delivery trucks arrive at stores carrying prized products such as chicken or milk.

Ponder that for a moment: “prized products such as chicken or milk.”

“There’s no organization, they treat you like an animal, they don’t respect anything,” said Carmen Neskowi, 49, who identified her profession as “standing in line,” in a queue outside a Caracas supermarket. “It’s an insult.”

Of course they treat you like an animal. They’re a socialist government.

Supporters of the ruling Socialist Party note that the network of subsidized state-run grocery stores created by late president Hugo Chavez and financed by plentiful oil revenue helped reduce poverty and hunger during his 1999-2013 rule.

It takes a decade or two for socialism to ruin a country, especially when you have one of the world’s largest supplies of oil. But reality can’t be staved off indefinitely:

According to polls, his party is expected to do poorly in legislative elections later this year, its support hit by high inflation, the currency’s collapse and food shortages.

This is what happens when you have a government-run economy. Every time:

Local food producers ranging from neighborhood bakeries to an industrial pasta maker have halted or slowed operations for lack of raw materials or machine parts. …

Lines are increasingly filled with smugglers who buy subsidized goods and resell them at a profit on the black market or in neighboring Colombia, generating tension between resellers and those trying to stock their own kitchens.

Today, socialist Bernie Sanders is the darling of the Democratic Party. He is closing on Hillary Clinton in the polls, and generating far more excitement on the stump. Sanders is no fringe candidate; a recent poll found that 56% of Democrats would be “enthusiastic or satisfied” if Sanders is their party’s nominee, while fewer than 25% see that as a problem.

Can people really be this dumb? Yes, they can. Yes, and how many times must socialism fail, before it forever is banned? I don’t know. The answer is blowing in the wind, or something.